Advocates of removing a bust of Robert E. Lee from Monroe Street in downtown Fort Myers were publicly challenged on the latest bid to remove the monument honoring the Civil War general from the Monroe Street site where it has stood since 1966.

The Lee County chapter of the NAACP has asked the United Daughters of the Confederacy to join it in an effort to remove the Lee bust from Monroe Street.

A series of supporters of the monument spoke during a public comment period at the Fort Myers City Council meeting Monday night.

"Robert E. Lee is one of the misunderstood men of the world," said resident Kevin Courter. "I have lived here my entire life, Robert E. Lee should be used for education, this upsets me."

For some of the opponents of removing the monument, the issue is one that has been raised too often with the same result. Resident Karen Monroe said it is a debate that should be settled.

"I am a daughter of the Confederacy and I admire Robert E. Lee; this is where the bust belongs, this is Lee County," Monroe said. "If troublemakers would leave us alone, we would get along fine because we love each other — we need to stop this."

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Leaders of the Lee County NAACP expressed a willingness to compromise over the painting of Lee in the Old County Courthouse that shows him in military dress. County commissioners are divided about the compromise.
Andrea Melendez/news-press.com

Supporters of keeping the Lee bust, and the portrait of Lee in the county commission chamber, stressed Lee's leadership and post-war attempts to bring the county together and urged the city to reject any effort to remove the bust.

No supporters of removing the bust appeared at the meeting after raising the issue last week. James Muwakkil, Lee County NAACP chapter president, said in reaching out to the Daughters of the Confederacy that he hoped the bust could be removed from the public square.

"Let's get it out of public view to where we are not forced, as African-Americans or other right-minded citizens to view when we come downtown," said Muwakkil in an interview last week.

Before heading to the Fort Myers City Council meeting to speak out against removing the bust, David McCallister, commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Tampa, and H.K. Edgerton, president of Southern Heritage 411 and a former officer in the NAACP, posed for photographs in front of the statute and spoke with The News-Press.

H.K. Edgerton, left, and David McCallister, activists in the movement to preserve Southern heritage, came to Fort Myers on Monday to speak against removing the bust of Robert E. Lee from a city owned traffic island on Monroe Street.(Photo: NEWS-PRESS STAFF PHOTO)

Both used an interview as an opportunity to accuse the NAACP of ulterior motive in calling for the removal of the statue.

Edgerton compared the local NAACP chapter president's drive to remove the Lee monument to the civil rights organization's drive to remove public display of the Confederate flag.

"What are those folks who are opposed to Robert E. Lee opposed to," Edgerton said at council meeting. "Gen. Lee was a great man."

"The attack on this flag wasn't because this flag was an evil thing it was because this flag put money in the coffers of the NAACP," Edgerton said.

McCallister made similar remarks deriding the NAACP's work on civil rights.

"For a quarter of a century the NAACP has been dealing in hate in order to serve itself," McCallister told The News-Press. "They were the ones that picked this fight, the Confederate symbols, including monuments to Robert E. Lee are a familiar and respected feature of the civic landscape. "

Lee's bust is perched above a granite marker which includes a variety of artifacts from the Civil War era, including relics from Union and rebel forces. They were donated by a long-time collector. When the bust was dedicated in 1966, the container sealed in the concrete underpinnings for the Lee monument was referred to as a symbol of the unity of the north and south.

Edgerton accused Muwakkil of using the Daughters of the Confederacy to raise the issue again, despite a lack of support from the organization.

"It was disingenuous, the only reason why he would is to try to put them in his favor to get this monument removed," Edgerton said in an interview. "I have spoken to a lot of UDC people across the country and not one of them that I have spoken to are supportive."

Edgerton also referred to some civil rights activists as "these so-called leaders in the black community, the poverty pimps as I like to call them."

He took exception to the idea that some blacks feel offended by the Lee monument and claimed that for many, it feigned opposition.

"Bring that lie detector over and put that lie detector down and let's find out who is telling the truth," he said.